Demographics of Qatar

Natives of the Arabian Peninsula, many Qataris are descended from a number of migratory tribes that came to Qatar in the 18th century to escape the harsh conditions of the neighboring areas of Nejd and Al-Hasa. Some are descended from Omani tribes. Qatar has over 2.2 million people, the majority of whom (about 90%) live in Doha, the capital.[1]Foreign workers with temporary residence status make up almost 90% of the population, with Indians being the largest community numbering around 545,000. As of 2014, there were a further 400,000 Nepalis, 200,000 Filipinos, 180,000 Egyptians, 150,000 Bangladeshis, 100,000 Sri Lankans and 90,000 Pakistanis among many other nationalities.[2]

For centuries, the main sources of wealth were pearling, fishing, and trade. At one time, Qataris owned nearly one-third of the Persian Gulf fishing fleet. With the Great Depression and the introduction of Japan's cultured-pearl industry, pearling in Qatar declined drastically.

The Qataris are mainly Sunni Muslims. Islam is the official religion, and Islamic jurisprudence is the basis of Qatar's legal system. Arabic is the official language and English is the lingua franca of business. Urdu is also widely spoken, especially by the South Asian foreign workers.[3] Education is compulsory and free for all residents 6–16 years old. Qatar has an increasingly high literacy rate.

Qataris can be divided into three ethnic groups: Bedouins, Hadar, and Abd. Bedouins are descended from the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. The Hadar are mostly descended from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and are occasionally referred to as "Irani-Qataris". The Abd are descendants of slaves brought from East Africa, namely Sudan and Somalia (the ones bought from Somalia originally hailed from the Swahili coast).[4]

Mitochondrial DNA mtDNA represents the female lineage The Qatari mitochondrial DNA shows much more diversity than the Y-DNA lineages, with more than 35% of the lineages showing African ancestry (East African & Subsaharan) & the rest of the lineages being Eurasian.[16]